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Posted by kelseyfrog 2 days ago

Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (2006)(pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
266 points | 126 commentspage 2
nopurpose 10 hours ago|
These two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXBGZoBYaLY must be best dorm neighbours ever then.
ChrisMarshallNY 5 hours ago|
That's fairly cool.

I probably couldn't listen to that on a regular, but I enjoyed it.

Thanks!

DTrejo 12 hours ago||
30% of Americans have reflux, which is associated with obstructive sleep apnea.

Check out the papers on Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) and bridge swallowing.

dartharva 13 hours ago||
The captcha on this site is irritating.

Original paper: https://www.bmj.com/content/332/7536/266

mastazi 6 hours ago|
Thank you, I was completely unable to access that page with my current browser settings.
getpost 1 hour ago||
Yes, it is almost as if the current administration doens't want people to acces medical information.
nubinetwork 9 hours ago||
Yeah I dunno if I believe this, I played trombone when I was a kid... I didn't get sleep apnea until like 10 years ago. Unless it somehow takes like 30 years to develop, it seems implausible.
elric 4 hours ago||
What are you saying? That you expected your childhood trombone playing would somehow protect you from sleep apnea forever? "Use it or lose it." Sleep apnea can certainly take 30 years to develop. Old age increases the chances of getting it. Menopause does too. Muscles get weaker.
y-curious 9 hours ago||
n=25, self report AND only players with partners. I think there’s merit to using muscular musculature to improve your sleep apnea but this doesn’t answer the question of why playing the instrument wasn’t preventative in the first place.
mariusor 8 hours ago||
Because anatomy not consistently used declines in fitness?
masfuerte 8 hours ago||
And unused muscles start to significantly decline in your mid-forties. Maybe thirty years after playing trombone as a kid.
jimmcslim 13 hours ago||
Didgeridoo specifically?, or any instrument that requires circular breathing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_breathing
pegasus 10 hours ago||
Circular breathing is easiest to accomplish on the didgeridoo. This is because of several reasons: optimal back-pressure (hits the sweet spot between lack of resistance on a flute and too much of it on an oboe, for example), loose embouchure (relaxed lips make it easier to puff up the cheeks) and single drone focus (no distracting fingerings required).

I also suspect the intense vibrations have a similar effect (probably stronger) to humming, which is known to dramatically (15-20x) increase the release of beneficial nitrous oxide in the nasal passages.

yks 45 minutes ago|||
would oboe be more effective then, albeit harder to will-power yourself into mastering?
joshspankit 6 hours ago|||
> I also suspect the intense vibrations have a similar effect…

My gut says that there are some interesting discoveries waiting around the intersections of frequency of vibration, individual resonant frequency, and duration

scrumbledober 12 hours ago||
the study was conducted using a didgeridoo but the circular breathing seems to be the important mechanism. No studies have been conducted on other instruments that require or benefit from it.
jojobas 12 hours ago|||
I doubt many of them actually figured out how to circular breathe after one lesson. Source: have been playing sax for 20 years, tried learning it many times, still no good.
marginalia_nu 10 hours ago|||
Aulos it is then!
analog8374 3 hours ago||
It sounds like an attention thing.

Attention is magic stuff. Putting it on part of your body can make it better. Withdrawing it can make it worse. I suspect that much disease stems from such neglect.

I used to have a chronically stuffed nose. Then I started doing a kind of meditation where I put my attention upon my nose. My nose opened up and I almost never get a stuffed nose anymore.

sdenton4 3 hours ago|
Are you saying that, in fact, attention is all you need?
Ngraph 12 hours ago||
CPAP user here, and "have you tried taking up the didgeridoo" is comfortably the best sentence I've ever read in a medical journal. The mask works fine — it's just that I go to bed every night looking like a minor Star Wars character, so I'm very open to alternatives. And from the other comments, the didgeridoo sounds like the boring tongue exercises in a trenchcoat: same throat muscles, except you might actually keep doing it. Which is the entire problem with the tongue exercises. Study was moderate apnea so I'm keeping the machine. But I am absolutely buying a didgeridoo and becoming insufferable about it. My household has been notified.
georgemcbay 13 hours ago||
There are also various simple tongue and throat exercises that can improve your sleep apnea that would generally be better tolerated by your neighbors than playing a Didgeridoo, see for example...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNscQ3bGxNk

...along with various other videos on that person's youtube channel (he's an NHS Sleep and Ear Surgeon).

Of course, there are lots of underlying causes of sleep apnea that vary between people, so what helps one person may or may not be relevant for others. Seeing a doctor in the field should be your first step if you suspect you are suffering from sleep apnea.

defrost 13 hours ago||
If your neighbour plays the banjo, invite them over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3iI8gg2fo

Two wrongs can make a right.

_puk 13 hours ago|||
45 seconds of didge, and then be puts it down!

Hope he sleeps well tonight!

defrost 13 hours ago||
Blame the song structure.

You'll hear Charlie McMahon going at it with continuous circular breathing for five to eight minutes or so on the early Gondwanaland albums (along with sliding length didgeridoo effects and 'singing' down tube).

philiplu 13 hours ago||||
Thx for linking that. Just … wow
gramie 6 hours ago|||
Not really related, but worth repeating: there's an old saying, "A gentleman is one who knows how to play the accordion, but doesn't".
darylteo 11 hours ago|||
Some might, in fact, call it the Didgeridon't
worthless-trash 13 hours ago||
Jokes on you, my neighbours already play the digeriedoo.
jojobas 12 hours ago||
Looks like there was no placebo group? Don't know what that could be, something silly like otamatone lessons.
RobotToaster 11 hours ago||
A placebo didgeridoo, otherwise known as a didgeridon't
askvictor 9 hours ago|||
RTFA? "Participants in the control group remained on the waiting list for lessons"
gblargg 8 hours ago||
That's not a placebo. A placebo would be learning to play some other instrument like a piano, that doesn't involve breath. I also RTFA and saw no mention of any meaningful control group. For all they know the effects would come from learning any instrument, or just going to regular classes, or...
nephihaha 9 hours ago||
Now I want to hear about the possible effects of ukulele playing on scoliosis.
xuzhenpeng 10 hours ago|
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